Samuel Brown writes a thoughtful review of Joakim Ojanen’s recent show “Snake Pit” at The Hole NYC! Buy yourself a bus ticket and catch this quirky show– a world building installation filled with odd, anxious, cheeky, and playful characters– before April 14th, 2019!

Public art nerds! Artblog contributor Andrea Kirsh penned a thoughtful piece on “Siah Armajani: Follow This Line” (on view NOW at the Met Breuer!) Armajani, who was forced to leave Iran in the 1960s for political reasons, creates witty works that comment on American building forms and pose questions about social interactions with public spaces. Don’t miss “Siah Armajani: Follow This Line” on view until June 2nd, 2019!

Mandy Palasik, architect, writer, artist and art lover, makes a journey to Chester County to the home studio of the late master of woodworking, Wharton Esherick, and finds the wood surfaces irresistible to the touch (which is encouraged!) in the house Wharton built. Mandy recently reviewed the Becky Suss paintings at Fleisher-Ollman, based on that artist’s experience of the home studio. Suss’s paintings are now on view at the Esherick Museum, a great pairing.

Artblog contributor Matt Kalasky speaks with Daniel Park and Arianna Gass (via telephone!) of the team of “Obvious Agency,” a multi-media game and interactive experience group. The “Obvious” team comes from theater and performance backgrounds and works to immerse people in fun activities in galleries and museums. The podcast comes to us through the courtesy of The Galleries at Moore’s radio station, TGMR. The interview is 26 minutes long.

Logan Cryer writes an insightful appreciation of the Women’s Mobile Museum culminating exhibition. The group photography show by — and depicting — women involved in the year-long project at PPAC, has some great self-representation, and Logan concludes that photography is the best medium with which to examine issues of who is normally represented in art works and who is normally excluded. The exhibition is up at PPAC through March 30.

In her review of Cecilia Vicuña exhibition, Andrea Kirsh calls the works — little cobbled-together objects tacked to the walls or arrayed on a low platform on the floor — marvels. But these objects are not nothings to throw away but objects with magical shadows and poetic meanings, and their mystery delights.

Sam Brown sees a provocative show at Second State Press of printed posters made by the group “Prints for Protest.” He appreciates how many different ways artists in the show connect with protest issues alive today.

Sarah Kim visits the exhibit at the William Way Center and views art whose materials defiantly separate it from traditional mainstream art. Altars made with found materials; altered photo-portraiture; drawing installations and collage, made by six artists, the art is metaphorical and symbolic of the state of being in flux, in transition. Kim’s powerful writing leads you through the exhibit, adding insightful commentary and insights. After considering this show about fluid states of identity, Kim concludes that ultimately, selfhood is the experience itself, and art, which is based in objecthood, can point the way.

Mark Lord sees the installation of monumental waterfall paintings by Pat Steir at the Barnes and points out the works’ eerie connection to our world of melting glaciers and other tragic cascades of water when natural forces are disrupted as they have been by global warming. In his lyrical post, Lord writes of beauty and something cosmic in the drips, splashes and vigorous build ups of Steir’s painted moments. This under-sung artist is the subject of an upcoming documentary film. See Steir’s waterfall paintings at the Barnes Foundation through Nov. 17, 2019. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post for more photos!

In one of her last podcast interviews for Artblog Radio, Imani Roach speaks with Yolanda Wisher, poet, educator, community advocate and Curator of Spoken Word at Philadelphia Contemporary (PC). Wisher talks about her beginnings as a writer, fueled by a mother who was a voracious reader and forceful advocate for her as a writer when she was in elementary school. The wide-ranging conversation explores why Wisher has a studio at Cherry St. Pier; how she figured out that poetry could be used for social change; her (not widely known) work as a singer and her upcoming podcast series for PC, which will enlist Philadelphia poets and DJs and include poetry recitation and music, and not so much conversation. This great conversation was recorded at Moore College of Art and Design’s TGMR Radio, and is 38 minutes long.

New contributor and friend of Artblog, Wit López speaks with multi-disciplinary artist Heather Raquel Phillips about documenting people of color in the leather community and turning the camera on herself.

Michael Lieberman checks out the newest show on view at High 5 Gallery, a relative newcomer to Philadelphia’s always-vibrant gallery scene. The exhibit “Untethered” is tied together by its warm coloration and overarching sense of whimsy. Michael says the work is a steal at its current price, so if you’re a collector on a budget, swing by before the show closes on January 31!

Imani reviews the new catalog from Rizzoli Electa, “I Too Sing America,” published in conjunction with the exhibit by the same name at the Columbus Museum of Art. Chock full of color images, archival materials and biographical insights, the coffee table book by writer and the show’s curator, Will Haygood, a Columbus native, is more than just a pretty face, she says.

Becky Suss’s new paintings on view at Fleisher/Ollman honor the legacy of mid-century craftsman Wharton Esherick, whose home studio is in Chester County. Suss chronicles the spaces Esherick designed and occupied as well as the furniture he is known for, translated through her own vision of the spaces, places and objects. Architect and Artblog contributor Mandy Palasik interprets the show and examines the resonance between these two artists and their bodies of work. “Becky Suss/Wharton Esherick” is open through January 26, so make your plans to visit now!